Corporate driven healthcare

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld The Affordable Care Act the final piece of the puzzle is in place. We will begin the inevitable slide to the end of patient driven healthcare – individualized medicine led by independent doctors in consultation with their patients. The healthcare system is broken, but The Affordable Care Act is not the solution. Instead of depending on Congress and waiting for an election to bring change, it is up both doctors and patients to work together to take back our power.

For those who continue to delude themselves that Obamacare will lead them to the healthcare land of milk and honey, I have some news for you -- it’s never going to happen. Critical thinking would lead one to the conclusion that there is no way to add 30 million more people to a system that is already fundamentally broken. There have been many arguments used to sell Obamcare to the public. Much of it has been disingenuous, peddled not by doctors who are on the front line taking care of patients to the best of their ability, but by corporate interests that stand to gain from profits gleaned from the practice of corporate disease driven medicine. e.g., the pharmaceutical industry, the American Medical Association, AARP, The Hospital Corporation of America, and various unions.

Since the healthcare reform legislation passed, the discussion has centered on the fear of a government takeover of healthcare, but maybe this should not be the focus. Perhaps we should be worried about a corporate takeover of healthcare. Google is one example of the growing list of companies with a creepy connection with the government. Like the Food Safety Bill S510 which has given control of our food supply to big Agra, and the Healthcare Reform Bill that has given control of our healthcare system to big pharma, insurance companies and corporate hospitals, this appears to be yet another example of the insertion of a corporate middleman between us and our right to privacy. First it’s the carrot then the stick - put your health information voluntarily on their website, and like the social media websites put yourself in the position to have it be used against you.